Indigenous Peoples

The IIWG is committed to prioritizing and empowering Indigenous communities when it comes to strategically protecting their Waterways – Lands – Air, inherent rights, and traditional ways of life.

History of Working Group

Established in 2014, the NEXUS Working Group on Indigenous Peoples was established to ensure Indigenous voices, ideas, concerns, and leadership are present in all NEXUS International chapters, as well as help lead the collaboration between the United Nations and NEXUS. Building off this framework, we are working to empower and elevate Indigenous Peoples’ work around the world, utilize existing and new mechanisms for Indigenous Peoples to acquire and adequately maintain land in the most self-determined way as possible, and guide Nexus members to invest in Indigenous-led infrastructure projects.

 

Mission

Worldwide colonial expansion has created many intergenerational traumas that continues to perpetuate the Doctrine of Discovery, genocide and theft from Indigenous People around the world. Furthermore, Indigenous Peoples inherently remain the voice for Mother Earth, in regard to her respect and care, as well as how we, as our caretakers, can do better when balancing our interactions with her. The need for this voice in networks, such as Nexus, is instrumental in achieving our social, economic, and political resilience as communities that make up sovereign nations around the world. Catalyzing our respective voices in bringing forward projects, initiatives, and partnerships that will empower Indigenous People, including their connected communities.

The IIWG will be an avenue for NEXUS members to learn about issues, solutions, and ways to empower Indigenous communities. Like other NEXUS Working Groups, the IIWG will be curating content for summits, local salons, regional workshops and site visits to mobilize around Indigenous-led projects, organizations, and movements. In addition, the IIWG will create resources for champions, allies, and interns (i.e. books/movies/music) to help people learn ways to save space for Indigenous People and their perspectives.

OUR AMBASSADORS

Cara Peek

Cara Peek

Cara Peek is a Yawuru/Bunuba woman, a lawyer, social innovator and entrepreneur strongly committed to fostering access and opportunity for rural, remote and regional communities. Cara’s speciality is place based, people-centred solutions with global reach. She has worked in the government, non-profit and corporate sectors before co-founding The Cultural Intelligence Project and founding non-profit Saltwater Country with a focus on empowering First Nations people to improve their social, emotional and economic well-being. She believes the success of Indigenous Australians is the success of all Australians. Cara’s recent awards include 2019 Churchill Fellow, 2019 AMP Tomorrow Maker, 2020 Agrifutures Rural Women Award WA. Based out of Broome, Western Australia.

Key Issues

  • Immediate:
  • Solidarity work and advocacy for Indigenous groups working against deforestation, criminalization, and genocide
  • Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Girls/People
  • Recovery efforts for Tribal communities affected by the recent storms
  • Ongoing:
  • UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
  • Local, Regional, and Global policy efforts
  • Long-Term Implementation & Planning:
  • Direct finance and capacity building for Indigenous communities to plan build and maintain renewable energy infrastructure